City council lines up new projects during first meeting of 2021

JACKSON, Tenn. — How will the City of Jackson honor the late Clark Shaw? By adding his name to Casey Jones Lane. That’s just one of the topics Jackson City Council members discussed in their first meeting of 2021.

“We will have an honorary name change to Clark Shaw Memorial Drive,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger. “It’s a way to honor him for his contributions to Jackson and the Old Country Store.”

That’ll happen sometime this spring.

Also this spring: new playground equipment at several city parks. The $150,000 grant was funded by Amerigroup.

“We’ll get some more information out about that this month,” Mayor Conger said.

The city council also discussed closing a downtown alley to pedestrian traffic, and was met some opposition — one resident saying, “It would be very inconvenient.”

The alley connects East Lafayette and East College Streets.

The city said they want to close it for a few reasons: one, claiming it would be a safer pass through for people who park their cars in the city lot. It’s also where many city employees park.

“We felt the benefit to the public outweighed the small inconvenience,” said City of Jackson Planning Director Stan Pilant.

And two, it would give property owners more room to develop.

“If we do barricade the alley, it allows for the opposite end of the alley to develop out their second and third floors and provide that fire escape access, so the floors on that building aren’t left undeveloped because there is no access,” Conger said.

After the discussion, they voted to table it until next month — hopefully coming to a compromise with the resident by then.

“She came in and communicated with the council, and her voice was heard,” Conger said. “She’ll communicate more with the council members and give us some pictures and aerial shots of her access point.”

The city council also voted on a resolution addressing the postal service. It would ask them to put mailboxes in front of houses in new subdivisions, and to not create cluster mailboxes in new developments.